LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 09: NCT 127 attends the 2018 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on October 9, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

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It took a handful of hours on Wednesday night (Jan. 9) for fans of K-pop star Haechan (Lee Dong-hyuk) to donate $2,000 to Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. The reason? Fans of the 18-year-old singer, a member of NCT and its associated NCT 127 and NCT Dream teams, thought that a newborn southern pudu fawn seemingly resembled the artist, and so the Zoo offered them a chance to have the animal named in his honor if they could come up with the funds.

“It's come to our attention that Haechan of the K-pop groupNCT is considered by many of his fans to resemble an adorable pudu,” the initial post on their Twitter account read that night, posted just after 8PM EST. “So we want to give fans the opportunity to officially name the newborn fawn after the singer!”

According to the Zoo, animals born there are typically “given names chosen by donors wishing to support conservation work.” But in this case fans became the conservators as the Zoo offered them the chance to raise $2,000 in the name of the star within five days so that the animal could be named after him. It took around three hours.

“Wow! NCT fans have met the goal already, and we are so grateful--as a nonprofit, your generosity means the world,” the Zoo shared on its social media accounts just after 11PM. “We'll update you tomorrow about the official naming, and sincere thanks from all who care for the animals…especially pudus Mario, Steph, & baby Haechan.”

K-pop fans, and music fans in general, donating in the name of their favorite artist is not a new trend in 2019, but a pudu being named Haechan is the latest in a long history of charitable giving being made in the name of stars coming out of the South Korean music world. Whether it’s donating food or forests — yes, entire forests — the practice has become enmeshed in the fandom lifestyle for many K-pop aficionados.

In 2013, The Korea Heraldreported that the fan-led donations grew out of gift giving practices, with fans opting to spend funds on charitable gifts in the name of stars rather than gift goods directly to the stars, a common practice in the K-pop world. The practice has seen widespread growth over the years, and, unlike the spontaneous pudu conservation fund donations, many fandoms regularly organize large-scale donations and campaigns.

In recent years, the practice has become even more widespread, and the scale of donations have increased. In December, there were reports that a Chinese fanbase of EXO’s Kai, Baidu Kaibar, planned to build a primary school in the Lianghe, China in his name. That same month, the BTS-associated Love Myself UNICEF campaign had collected an accumulated fund of $1.6 Million USD, based based on donations from the act, its label and fans. Organizers like One In an ARMY, a BTS fanbase that comes up with monthly donation campaigns to raise funds for different charities, are increasingly commonplace.

As K-pop’s global fandom grows, the associated spending is similarly increasing in scale. Not only are fans using money on marketing their favorite artists, they’re making the world a better place in the name of their favorite pop love. With nearly 90 million fans of Korean pop culture worldwide as 2019 kicks off, the spending power, or donating power in this case, of K-pop fans should not be underestimated as a force for good.